# Packetbeat requirements using a SPAN interface **URL:** \ **Category:** Beats\ **Tags:** packetbeat\ **Created:** [April 14, 2016, 12:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/packetbeat-requirements-using-a-span-interface/47387 "2016-04-14T12:44:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ada\_pozo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@ada\_pozo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ada_pozo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 12:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/packetbeat-requirements-using-a-span-interface/47387/1 "2016-04-14T12:44:52Z")
Hi, What are the traffic requirements of packetbeat in order to capture HTTP transactions from a third computer using the SPAN interface of a router? Is it mandatory to be the sender or receiver of the HTTP traffic? If so, is there any way to override these constraints? Also, is there any detailed benchmark available about packetbeat performance? Ada ---
**Author:** ![Carlos\_Vega\_Moreno](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/carlos_vega_moreno/32/3773_2.png) [@Carlos\_Vega\_Moreno](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Carlos_Vega_Moreno)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 12:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/packetbeat-requirements-using-a-span-interface/47387/2 "2016-04-14T12:53:35Z")
I would also like to have a detailed test of packetbeat. Other tools like logstash mention some benchmarks but packetbeat documentation just says different results for different capture systems such as pcap, pf\_ring and af\_packet. They say pf\_ring is able to sniff Gigabits per second but there is nothing about packetbeat performance. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/packetbeat-requirements-using-a-span-interface/47387/3 "2017-07-05T21:53:16Z")